Iron Man

I got the lab results back from my check up. Everything was OK. Cholesterol is split into LDL (bad cholesterol) and HDL (good cholesterol). Surprisingly, my LDL levels were at 115; they should be less than 130. Even more surprisingly, they said I have "elevated iron levels." I have no idea what that means, but they want me to go in and get another test in case the results were wrong.

A little research on WebMD says that high iron levels is a condition called hemochromatosis:
Hemochromatosis is a condition that develops when too much iron builds up in the body. Your body normally stores small amounts of iron in the bone marrow, liver, kidneys, and heart, but excess iron will eventually damage these organs.

A little more research yielded a site called foodshighiniron.com, which said:

Iron Rich Foods
· Beef, Certain cereals, Green leafy vegetables, Liver, Prunes

So it looks like I don't need to worry too much about the cholesterol, but do need to stay away from those life-threatening green leafy vegetables.

Overall, I think this is good news for a guy who's one-third through his probably potential lifespan.

I immediately celebrated with fried chicken wings and french fries.

Doctor Doctor

A couple of weeks ago, my boss, who is a pretty thin guy and an avid marathon runner, was diagnosed with high cholesterol in his last annual medical check-up. That got me thinking, that I haven't had a medical check up in more than a year... maybe more like a decade. Now if my marathon boss has high cholesterol, I can't imagine what could be wrong with me, working a few stories above a food court and consuming a coffee to water ratio of 2 to 1. (And the occasional alcoholic beverage, which I can't really calculate, since I tend to lose count when I drink those.)

So I promptly researched and asked for a recommendation on a decent doctor. My appointment is tomorrow. I'm a tad nervous as to what may be building up in in any of the many parts of my body over the last few years, and the blood work(i.e. needle stuck parallel to my vein) gets me kinda queasy. I've been trying not to think about it much, and I absolutely forgot about it during lunch when I ordered a chicken pot pie from the Macy's Cellar. It was very good, with big chunks of chicken, thick gravy, and a flaky, buttery crust. I started to complain about my lunch to my co-worker after I finished it, just saying how bad it must have been for me. I would highly recommend it to anyone not watching their cholesterol though, as it was a darn good pot pie for $6.50.

So I go about my day, and by 5 PM, I end up with a bottle of Guiness on my desk. I'll spare the details on how it got there, but know that I finished it, and promptly complained again to my co-worker how counter-productive I was today, right before my appointment. She gave me sound advice, and said "Your check-up isn't going to track what you put in your body today, but what you put in there all year. Maybe you should have been worrying about this a year ago." I work with such smart people.